Selling seashells by the seashore

Selling seashells by the seashore

Mention abalone (perlemoen) and what probably springs to mind is fine dining Asian-style and flowing from that, its vulnerability to poaching along our Southern Cape coast where its numbers continue to crash downwards towards extinction. Which is why Hermanus has become home to one of the biggest land- based abalone farms in the country.

Nevertheless, not many of us give much thought to the animals’ shells with their beautiful iridescent colours. Or what happens to them once the inhabitants have been removed for human consumption? Abagold literally ends up with thousands of them, large and small, every year, too beautiful and too hardy simply to throw away.

The question the company began to ask was whether shells could form the basis for a craft that would provide a sustainable income for unemployed individuals in our local communities. So in 2018 Abagold management ap- proached the Overstrand Association for Persons with Disabilities (OAPD) in Hawston to ask whether they would be interested in setting up a workshop for some of their adult clients to turn the shells into marketable products.

The Association jumped at the offer and over the past four years four master crafters have been trained to turn out a variety of unique crafts. Cur- rently 12 people are actively involved in the project. Apart from the four, several trainees and support staff are employed. The shells are donated to them by Abagold and they either use them in their natural state, crush them into a textured gravel or cut them into mosaic-sized pieces.

Their most popular products are chan- deliers, clocks, mirror frames, house numbers and, at this time of year, silvery Christmas trees of various sizes, all made entirely of abalone shells.

They have been focusing on large items, but say they’d like to introduce some smaller pieces, too, that would be more portable for tourists and holiday makers. They’d be delighted if a local artist would offer to help them develop new designs.

Social Worker, Desiree Gelderblom is emphatic. “This is a place of hope,” she says. “The workers have a range of challenges, both physical and intellectual, but instead of focusing on what they can’t do, their strengths and abilities are identified and developed. Working here gives them a special status within the community and does wonders for restoring their dignity.”

Julius (Billy) Booysen is a good example of someone whose life the centre has transformed. Formerly one of the top gangsters and drug dealers in Hawston, he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in 2014 and had to face up to the fact that he would never be able to walk again and that many of his other functions would be compromised. He was devastated.

Describing what happened to him after joining the workshop, he says, “I was born again; I was given a new life.

Every day when I wake up now, I am so thankful I have a job to go to.” He does not have the full use of his hands, so is not himself a crafter, but he fills the important roles of onsite coordi- nator, facilitator and quality controller. “Everything here is good quality; it’s important,” he says. Desiree adds, “Billy’s story of courage and commitment has won him and the workshop huge respect in the community and now he visits schools and other groups to talk about the dangers of substance abuse. Each one of the workers has his or her own story of hardship and redemption to tell.” Not only have they learnt to create beautiful objects from a throw-away product, but they have learnt how to beat the odds.

About a year ago they were com- missioned by the Caledon Casino to make two giant Christmas trees out of shells (between 2.5 and 3 metres tall). This posed a problem. How were the crafters, some in wheelchairs, going to work at that height? Undaunted, they designed and built what Julius describes as a kind of scaffolding round the trees and got able-bodied men to hoist them up on to it – in their wheelchairs!

But there is another more every-day problem to deal with. They are cur- rently operating from a small church hall in Hawston, so when the space is needed, they have to pack up and store all their equipment, only to unpack it the next day. Desiree says they are desperate to build a workshop of their own next to the OAPD’s Hawston offices.

“The plans are with the municipality at the moment for approval,” she says, “but the biggest challenge is to raise the money (about R720 000, she estimates) to build and equip it. With this space additional crafters, even able-bodied community members can be trained, and we will really make an impact on the local economy.”

For more information, or offers of assistance, Desiree can be contact- ed at sw@overstrandapd@herma- nus.co.za or 028 315 1025